Cap for safety razors



Dec. 7, 1954 H. P. OLDHAM ETAL I 2,596,041

CAP FOR SAFETY RAZORS Filed Aug. 25, 1951 I znrerazforsf if L fly W y fi E a? United States Patent CAP FOR SAFETY RAZORS Henry P. Oldham, Duxbury, Edmund M. Sullivan, Arlington, and Gustaf G. Berg, West Newton, Mass., assignors to The Gillette Company, a corporation of Delaware Application August 25, 1951, Serial No. 243,662

4 Claims. (Cl. 3084) This invention relates to safety razors and consists in a new and improved blade-clamping member or cap of,

novel sheet metal construction. The blade-clamping members of safety razors have heretofore been usually manufactured as integral pieces from brass, aluminum or other alloys by a series of die-shaping operations. Safety razor caps generally include in their structure studs or a rib for locating the blade, and a threaded stem adapted to be engaged by the correspondingly threaded handle of the razor in clamping the blade between the cap and guard members.

The formation of a blade-clamping cap as an integral piece requires several machine operations in which the cap must be securely and accurately held with respect to operating tools. For example, in a cap having an integral threaded stem, the operations of fixing the stud for length and threading it require that the whole cap should be accurately located with relation to the fixing and threading tools. Since the cap has concave and convex surfaces, it is diflicult to hold it securely for machining except with the assistance of elaborate jigs and fixtures.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cap of such construction that it may be formed from several blanks of sheet steel or other sheet metal by simple punching and bending steps, dealing with blanks of sheet material automatically and at a high rate of speed and comprising only such parts as are capable of being easily and quickly assembled in producing the finished article. In one aspect, the composite cap of our invention comprises a transversely curved sheet metal body having a substantially rectangular contour with a centrally located hole and aligned slots in its major axis, one slot on each side of its central hole, a pair of stud members, each having an upright portion filling one of said slots and a base conforming to the curvature of the body, and means for fastening the base of each stud member to the body.

It will be understood that each of the parts above enumerated may be produced by automatic machinery and of such shape that they can be assembled only in one and the proper relation. When thus assembled, the stem and studs are fixed permanently in position in the cap by being enclosed between its body and cover elements.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for the purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a View in perspective showing the parts of the cap in exploded relation.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the body of the cap with parts of the stem and studs shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 3 is a view on an enlarged scale of one of the stud members shown in plan, side elevation and end elevation respectively.

Fig. 4 is a view in transverse cross-section of the complete cap. I

Fig. 5 is a view of the completed cap in longitudinal section, and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the blank from which the stud members are formed.

In manufacturing the cap herein illustrated, a rectangular' blank is punched from thin sheet steel about .040 inches in thickness and then formed by bending transversely into the body 10 of the cap. In practice the radius of curvature of the concave face of the body 10 Patented Dec. 7, 1954 may be approximately 1.25 inches. In the dieing-out operation, or subsequently thereto, the body 10 is provided with a pair of aligned slots 11 and 12 and a central hole 13 all disposed in its major axis. The slots 11 and 12 are spaced inwardly from the ends of the body 10 and symmetrically with respect to the central hole 13.

The slots 11 and 12 of the body 10 are intended for the reception of a pair of studs, each having a base flange 16 and an upstanding portion 17. These studs are identical in shape but are reversely positioned when assembled in the body 16. The upstanding portion 17 of each stud accurately fills one of the slots 11 or 12 while the base 16 of the stud, which is somewhat longer than the upstanding portion 17, is conformed to the curvature of the convex face of the body 10. The construction of the stud members will be clear from an inspection of Figs. 3 and 6. In Fig. 6 is represented the flat blank from which each stud is formed. This is centrally notched to facilitate folding and provided with a recess 16 in one edge. The blank of Fig. 6 is folded into the shape shown by the various views of Fig. 3. The base flange 16 takes the shape of a truncated triangle having a transverse curvature corresponding to that of the body 10. The intermediate portions of the blank are folded to form the upright portions of the studs and correspond in length and thickness to the lengh and width of the slots 11 and 12 in he body 10 of the cap.

The threaded stem of the cap is provided by a screw as shown in Fig. 4, having a threaded portion and a square head 15 which has imparted to it a curvature corresponding to that of the convex surface of the body 10. The shank of the stem 14 exactly fills the central hole 13 of the body 10 and when properly placed, the head 15 lies in intimate contact with the convex face of the body 10 and in symmetrical position. The stem and studs are assembled by merely inserting them through the hole 13 and the slots 11 and 12 from the convex side of the body 10. In this assembled position, it will be seen' that the opposite flat sides of the head 15 are engaged by the flat inner edges of the flanges 16 of the two stud members.

The cap is completed and a finish imparted thereto by a sheet metal cover 18 rectangular in contour and of the same length as the body 10 but of somewhat less width. The cover 18 is formed with an embossed or raised dome 19 herein shown as being diamond shaped and of such dimensions as snugly to enclose the flanges of the two stud members and the head of the stem 13, as best shown in Fig. 5.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that each of the constituent elements of the cap may be simply and accurately produced and that the assembling operation of these parts is facilitated because they fit together in positive relation and can be assembled only when properly located. The head 15 of the stem must be located squarely and symmetrically or else the stud members cannot be properly fitted, and unless the stud flanges are properly arranged as indicated in Fig. 2, the cover 18 cannot be brought into even contact with the convex face of the body 10. It will be seen that when these parts are properly assembled, the opposite flat sides of the head 15 of the threaded stem are engaged by the inner end edges of the base flanges 16 of the stud members. The stem is thus held positively against twisting. Further, the dimensions of the dome 19 of the cover 18 are such that the head 15 and the base flanges 16 are held positively in face-to-face continuous contact with the convex face of the body 10 and cannot be separated from it. The cover 18 is permanently secured in its proper position by sgldering or welding, thus completing the construction of t e cap.

If desired, the contour of the flanges 16 may be modified in shape by being more abruptly truncated to facilitate bending.

Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A composite cap for a safety razor comprising a transversely curved sheet metal body member of rectangular contour having a centrally located hole and aligned slots in its major axis, one on each side of its central hole, ah upright elongated stud projecting through each slot from the concave face of the body member and having a base flange conformed to the convex face of the body member, a threaded stem projecting through the central hole of the body member, having abase flange conformed to the convex face thereof and disposed between the fianges of said studs, and a cover member attached to the body member and enclosing the flanges of the threaded stem and studs.

2. A composite cap as described in claim 1 in which the base flange of the threaded stem is flat sided and engaged at opposite sides by the base flanges of the studs and thus prevented from twisting.

3. In a safety razor a composite cap comprising a rectangular body of sheet metal having concentric transversely curved convex and concave faces, a threaded stem projecting from the center of the concave face and an elongated slot in said body on either side of the stem, :1 sheet metal stud having an upright portion of double thickness filling each slot and a triangular base flange of single thickness conforming to the convexly curved face of the said body, and an outer cover permanently secured at its edges to said body and shaped to enclose and hold the base flanges of the studs.

4. In a safety razor, a blade-clamping element comprising a transversely curved sheet metal body having a centrally located stem and aligned slots in its major axis, one on each side of its central stem, and a pair of stud members each having an upright portion filling one of said slots and a base longer than the slot and conformed to the curvature of said body, the stem having a flat sided head disposed on the convex face of the sheet metal body, and the bases of the stud members having inner end edges that contact throughout their length with the opposite sides of the head of the stem and prevent it from twisting, and means for fastening the bases of the studs to said body.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,847,701 Testi Mar. 1, 1932 2,311,957 Muros et a1. Feb. 23, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 119,338 Australia Dec. 7, 1944 

